More than halve of councils in the West Midlands have rejected NHS England’s targets on delayed transfers of care and are calling on Jeremy Hunt to intervene to prevent them losing up to £150m funding.

Communities secretary Sajid Javid has confirmed councils will be able to raise the social care precept by 3 per cent in each of the next two years and that £240m is to be diverted from a housing scheme to fund social care services.

The government’s childhood obesity plan has been branded a disappointing missed opportunity by senior public health figures after it failed to take action on marketing and advertising of junk food and paid little attention to the role of councils.

Councils which will have limited ability to raise additional funds through the council tax social care precept will get a bigger share of the extra better care fund cash promised by the chancellor in the spending review.